E-commerce expected to drive demand for logistics space across Europe

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The requirement for industrial and logistics property to support the major expansion of internet retailers will be the biggest drive of activity in the European logistics market in the coming three years, according to a major survey of industry decision makers conducted by global real estate advisor CBRE.

Over half (55.6 per cent) of executive level respondents predicted that e-commerce would provide the main source of occupier demand for European distribution space over the next three years, vastly outperforming growth from other occupier types. 23.6 percent of those surveyed predicted third party logistics providers to be the most space-hungry sector, whilst manufacturing, food, and non-food retailers accounted for 6.9 per cent, 8.3 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.

The results of the survey, which analyses occupier, developer and investor sentiment across Europe, was revealed at CBRE’s annual European industrial and logistics conference, which took place in The Hague this week.

“The success of e-commerce is changing the nature of retailers’ logistics property requirements across Europe. The traditional model, which relies heavily on a high street presence, is being altered by significant demand for distribution property as retailers’ delivery channels expand, and the industrial and logistics sector is benefiting from this change. Online-only retailers such as Amazon, as well as those with a high street and online presence such as Next, with its successful Directory business are driving this trend.”